openSUSE began in 2005. At that time, SUSE had been producing commercial Linux distributions for more than ten years and had achieved great success. The know-how acquired in this sector was taken and harnessed in coordination with a committed community to create a free version for private users known as openSUSE.Corporate customers have also benefitted since the introduction of openSUSE Leap 2015. There is a new release annually, in conjunction with regular updates and security patches. Although SUSE is the main sponsor, the project is independent and open to all users.
The crossover between openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), the commercial Linux distribution from SUSE, became even closer with the introduction of openSUSE Leap. The software components are taken from SLES, while applications and interfaces are based on openSUSE Tumbleweed. The free distribution is binary compatible with its commercial counterpart. This arrangement is advantageous to both sides. Users of the free version get an operating system which is almost on par with the paid options, while the input from the large community has been extremely helpful in improving the commercial system.